Storm on the night of the 18th lasted until late morning. We left the hut a about 10:30 AM and reached the summit at about 3:30 PM. New snow and high winds - but not as many people as I understand is normal.

One of the worst climbing experiences of my life and also the most thrilling. Left the snow dome above the Gouter hut at 3 a.m. with clear skies. Once we reached the dome du gouter we came into a complete whiteout with horrible winds. We pushed on with great diificulty and approaching the Valot Hut we realized their was no chance and rather than getting stuck in the ice box refuge we made a break for the return camp. It ended up being 100 kmh+ winds with four feet of snow and a complete whiteout obscuring the trail. Good work with the compass brought us back to relative safety.

Thanks to SummitPost, I have looked two parners to climb Mont Blanc: Mike and Jeff. Mike come from USA, Jeff from Germany (but he is USA citizens) and I from Italy. We have met ourselves In Chamonix and Thursday we left to Ref. Du Gouter. Weather not good, snowed. The refuge was full and we have slept on the floor (and we have payed for this!). Friday morning we have started to tclimb Mont Blanc at 2:45 and we're arrived on the peak at 8:10. Too cold, we're been for about half an hour inside the bivouac Vallot (very crowed) to wait the sunrise. On the peak just a time to take some photos and then we come back to Ref. du Gouter and then to Tramway du Mont Blanc at 16.30 (and we have left to Bellevue at 17:50). Geat weather, great day, and great climbing!

The weather was very bad: fog and snowfall. Therefore we turned around at P. 4000m, shortly below the Vallot Bivouac Hut. It was a wise decision. To my experience, this is one of the most important things, which one has to learn for safe climbing: to find the right time to turn around.

About 4 weeks later (on August 14, 2000), I reached the summit of Mont Blanc - with blue sky and great sunshine.

A fantastic but long day from our camp site on top of the Mer de Glace just below the Cosmiques Hut. Left at midnight with the other hundred or so climbers but made good time and were one of the first to arrive at the steep climb below Mt.Maudit. Unfortunately one of the four on the rope came down with altitude fatigue after the steep section (which was a headache lead fighting off other climbers) but decided to push on. The pace slowed and only reached Mt.Blanc summit at 11:00am. A fantastic narrow summit with great views, and then pushed off down towards the Bossons Glacier route - literally a snow desert burning any exposed skin - and stayed at the hut above La Jonction. Cream crackered but very happy!

Started at the Aguille du Midi and with telemarks, skiid the ridge to the shagrin of onlookers (shock for myself!) and slept at the Cosmiques. We started our ascent at 3am which hindsight tells me was a little late when telemarking the 3M route. Sunrise greeted us spectacularly on Maudit, but it was then that we realized that the wind would be fierce. It was slow going into the wind and the velocity rose to 70K plus (probably reaching temp. of -60)! My skins failed at one point on Maudit and it looked tricky to complete from there, but after some maintenance, and with a little luck, we carried on. The wind became so fierce underneath the summit that we secured our gear including skiis, and climbed the final approach with only our axes in hand. Silent , clear and magnificent at the summit with no other people around. Despite significant frostbite to the face, and a scary fall at the start, successfully tele'd down the north face and through the Grand Mulets !! A gorgeous and dangerous day at times, and certainly this mountain commands my respect and awe. Can't wait to do other routes!

We (my father, two brothers and a friend of mine) were very inexperienced climbers at that moment. We have no experience with glacier climbing methods but it didn't matter us, we had the strengh. We tried Mont Blanc after having hiking a lot in the Massif: Mer de Glace, MB du Tacul, Glacier des Bossons, Petite Aiguille Verte. Passed the night before in refuge du Goûter (2-3 hours of sleep with every kind of noises on the dining-room floor), next day we reached refuge-bivouac Vallot after having started at 3 AM. We had a voting so descending was the winner (I voted to ascend) because people thought we have no time resting to take tramway back to the valley. Also a strong wind blowed at Vallot and we peged out. We just took the last railway to Saint Gervais.

started at night from the bivouac at Col de la Furche...did North Face of Aig. du Blanc in 3 hours without a rope and arrived the summit of Aig. du Blanc at sunrise...rappeled down to the begin of the Peuterey Ridge...climbed Peuterey Ridge without belay and arrived Mont Blanc Summit around 5 p.m. ...went down via Dome due Gouter and Aig. du Gouter and arrived Refuge du Gouter in the evening...very long day but wonderful impressions...highly recommended

Started in the night from the old Refuge du Cosmique and arrived at Refuge Gouter late in the afternoon...worked as Mountain Guide and had a group of 8 people...wonderful day...great adventure for the group

I have now been up the Mt. Blanc 22~23 times, and I've only backed off 5 times. This may sound like a lot but its nothing compared to some of the local Chamonix guides that I have spoken with (220+ times).

Its a fabulous mountain, with lots of history. I hope to climb it many more times, as long as I never catch up to my age, although that will probably happen soon. It would be nice to visit some of the other more obscure routes in the future.

There is no sunrise like a sunrise from the summit of Mt. Blanc. You can see and sometimes identify mountains on either end of the chain of the Alps, from the south of France all the way to Austria.

I reached the summit with 3 mates after passing 2 nights in tents. On descent we spent another night on Aiguille du Gouter because we were too tired after having wake up at 1:30 and walked for 10.5 hours. The Gouter hut is overcrowded in July and August. We were very lucky with the weather, otherwise you can't stay 4 days on the mountain. Read the weather information at Maison de la Montagne in Chamonix before parting. Be carefull with the overcrowd on the Gouter Couloir and the summit cornice. Also wear a helmet on the route between Tete Rouse and Gouter huts because of rocks falling. Go in good phisical condition because of the effort and height.